Professional recruiters “still vital”

Recruitment companies and the specialists that work with them are “still vital” to companies wishing to recruit for jobs in London or any other area.

That’s the opinion of recruitment expert, Neil Owen, speaking out in response to the recent launch of ‘Apply with LinkedIn’, the first staffing service from the professional networking site.

He admitted on Personneltoday.com that whilst social media is useful, it won’t replace traditional recruitment methods just yet. Owen added that social media can’t get rid of the “challenges” that still face companies looking to recruit.

“Recruiters spend their entire day focused on resourcing the best talent on the market through multiple sources, not just LinkedIn,” he said.

“A good recruiter will be looking to add value over and above just the supply of a CV, including extensive due diligence into the candidates suitability for a role. Skills testing, background and reference checks…as well as insight into job-market trends should be seen as standard.”

What’s more, social media websites aren’t able to filter through the mountain of CVs received by employers, which recruiters can. Having this critical aspect of the recruitment process managed for them means managers can rest assured they will receive only “top-calibre candidates”, suggested Owen.

However the chief executive officer of LinkedIn, Jeff Weiner, was quick to jump to the defence of his site’s latest addition. He said it would provide open access to many professionals throughout the globe – it has 100 million members, according to Guardian.co.uk. He even went as far as to call the service “essential”.